THANK YOU!

The 2012 Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival was a great success! We are delighted that so many people came out, ate a lot of popcorn, and enjoyed our programming this year.

The festival, just finishing its sixth year, runs with a small budget and little staff but benefits from the kindness of committed funders, many in-kind contributors, remarkable artists, and dedicated volunteers.

I would like to send out thanks to everyone who helped make HIFF 2012 such a wonderful event!

Our Partners: Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage, Telefilm Canada, the Halifax Regional Municipality, the National Film Board of Canada, NSCAD University, Dalhousie University, the University of Kings College, Situating Science, SIM Video, CFAT – the Centre for Art Tapes, the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar Society, the Toronto Animated Image Society, SAW Video, Live Art Dance Productions, WIFT-­AT – Women in Film and Television Atlantic, The Coast – Halifax’s Weekly, HM Design, the Postman Post-Production Studio, Village Sound, the Hideout Studios, 902 Post, Digi Boyz, PS Atlantic, William F White International, Deluxe, Kodak, and the Bus Stop Theatre. You are all bighearted.

Thanks to the talented (and often clever) folks who introduced each screening during the week, reading the names of those many partners one after the other in front of an audience. Take a bow, and a breath.

Thanks to our guest artists, Tom Sherman from Syracuse, Paul Clipson from San Francisco, Suzan Vachon from Montreal, and Eva Madden-Hagen from Halifax (but a delightful guest no less). Each of you inspired others countless times this week.

Thank you to our guests Laura Jeanne Lefave from the Canada Council for the Arts in Ottawa, and Lori McCurdy from the Atlantic Office of Telefilm Canada. The generosity of your time and the sharing of your knowledge this week will be much appreciated well into the future.

Thank you to the members of the AFCOOP Curatorial Committee, whose cinematic synapses snap in all the right places: Solomon Nagler (Chairperson), Darrell Varga, Shannon Brownlee, Jennifer VanderBurgh, Jerry White, and Silöen Daley.

Thank you to the members of the AFCOOP Board of Directors, Chaired by Jeff Wheaton (sometimes he lets the whuppet Chair).

Thank you to the Board of Directors of WIFT-AT, as well to Mireille Bourgeois, Tom Elliot, Kristen Atkins, Emily Tector, Gay Hauser, and Paul Caskey. Solid folks to partner-up with, always. We look forward to working with all of you for many years to come.

The graceful and unflappable Clare Waque at the Bus Stop Theatre – thanks for being there!

So many more thanks go out to the staff of AFCOOP, including the very special Martha Cooley and the gifted Chris Spencer-Lowe. Alex Balkam, Technical Coordinator, worked diligent long hours and lined-up 16mm, after DVD, after Super-8, after Digi-Beta, after any number of different video file formats so well – thank you for everything Alex.

Sarah MacLeod, Festival Coordinator, so gracefully balanced festival passes, film canisters, and Facebook in one hand, and hors d’oeuvres, airline tickets, and everything else in the other. You’re amazing! Thank you Sarah.

All of the filmmakers, local and from across the globe, who shared work at the festival this week – this festival would not exist without you. Thanks for contributing, and congratulations!